Ford Escort - Europe

Ford Escort Europe with opening doors. Corgi introduced the MkIII Escort in October 1980. You will find it in metallic blue, metallic green, primrose, red or blue. No version seems to attract any premium over the others. This is the first version of the Mark 3 Escort, before any of the later Ford face lifts. The model remained in the Corgi range beyond the Mettoy period and there were several releases which post date Mettoy.

Corgi explicitly refer to this as the 'Europe' version, as opposed to the US Escort, which I had not previously been aware of. According to Wikipedia: "Introduced in 1981, the first American Escort was intended to share common components with the European Mk III Escort (as with its sister, the Mercury Lynx), and was launched as a 2-door hatchback and as a 4-door station wagon, with the 4-door hatchback following a year later. It had considerably more chrome than the model sold elsewhere. The car was freshened in 1983. There was also the Ford EXP, and sister version Mercury LN7, targeting the sports car market, essentially a two-seat hatch with lower roofline which was not as successful as other body styles. Although the basic silhouette was the same, it was almost completely different from the European version, apart from the Ford CVH engine."